7th Annual Womens Leadership Forum

7th Annual Womens Leadership Forum
. Please Note --> This is a Past Event!! .

Date: 10/1/2009
Time:

Rittenhouse Building
1375 Pacific Ave
Santa Cruz, CA 95060

Phone:
(831) 457-3713

Event Description:

Registration is now closed. If you would like to attend, please call Annette @ 831.457.3720 and leave your name and phone number.

Thursday, October 1 at the Rittenhouse Building, 1375 Pacific Avenue. This one-day conference, focusing on the

Transformative Power of Women’s Values in Business, includes outstanding speakers, networking opportunities,

lunch, and a working session on identifying and implementing business changes at a personal level.

	DATE: Thursday, Oct 1
	TIME: 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. (A box lunch will be provided)
	LOCATION: the Rittenhouse Building, 1375 Pacific Avenue
	COST: $75 members, $85 non-members


WELCOME The Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce and its Women in Business Committee welcome you to our Seventh Annual Women in Business Leadership Forum! We again look forward to a day of fellowship and learning October 1. The Leadership Forum Committee set out to create a program that would respond to bad economic times with a message of hope and new beginnings. The committee was unanimous in its dedication to a program from which each participant could emerge with a commitment to personal change, growth, and renewal		Sponsor

THE INSPIRATION In searching for content for this meeting we were immediately captured by two Icelandic women who founded a financial investment company in 2007 based on “feminine principles”; dedication to these principles allowed their company, Audur Capital, to be one of only two financial-sector businesses in Iceland that didn’t fail. “Wow,” we said, “these are simple principles, things that would obviously make a real business difference, and ideas that really do reflect feminine values and behaviors.” These principles became the catalyst for our 2009 Forum. (Read more about Audur.)		Supporters

THE FIRST STEPS Our next connection was with Nina Simon, founder of Museum 2.0, who consults with museums around the world. Her design consultancy is focused on creating participatory, dynamic, audience-centered museum spaces with institutions like the Smithsonian, the Chicago History Museum, The International Spy Museum in Washington D.C., the new Mint museum in San Francisco as well as local favorites like the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Tech Museum in San Jose. We asked Nina what she could do with us to create an interactive experience for several hundred participants on the topic of changing values, principles, and behaviors related to business, work, and personal success. The result was one of the most exciting and creative conversations ever. We promise this will be a real highlight of the conference… an opportunity to interact with each other and explore your own expectations and hopes. About the same time we discovered *Womenomics, a book by Claire Shipman and Katty Kay*, television journalists with ABC and the BBC. This book takes Audur’s feminine approach to business to a more personal level. It challenges all of us to redefine “success”, to renegotiate our jobs to better integrate work expectations and personal goals, and to develop new perspectives for a transformed economic environment. This inspired us to see a core piece of the Forum as an invitation to change our expectations for work and the workplace. (Read more about Museum 2.0 and Womenomics.)		Table Sponsor Media Sponsors

THE EVENT Guided by these notions we set out to find a keynote speaker who could talk about bringing a female perspective, values, and principles to the workplace… and we found a great one. Dolores Carr, Santa Clara District Attorney, elected in 2006 on a platform of reforming a prosecutor’s office that had a “win at all costs” reputation. The first woman elected to this office in Santa Clara County and one of the few women serving in this role in a major urban area, Dolores has implement new standards and workplace expectations in a highly competitive, politically charged environment. A former prosecutor and former judge she left a secure position on the bench to undertake this challenge. She will talk about her personal experience in bringing her new perspectives to this role and implementing change in a difficult environment at a challenging time.

We also wanted to kick-off the event with some local and regional women who could talk about how the challenges we face also offer the opportunities for real change in both our work environment and the structure of a work. We have gathered are remarkable group women for this panel:
Linda Gold (M3iworks, CEO), Under Linda's leadership, M3iworks is recognized annually by the SV/SJ Business Journal as one of Silicon Valley's Top Web Design and Top Women-Owned Businesses. Linda consistently receives recognition in their "Who's Who in Silicon Valley,” "Women of Influence,” and “Women of Distinction” honors, NAWBO-SV’s "Woman Business Advocate of the Year" and "Enterprising Woman of the Year,” Women's Initiative’s creation of the Linda Gold Scholarship Fund and 20th Anniversary Pacesetter award, and MLK Jr. Foundation "Mover of Mountains" award.

Kim Walesh (City of San Jose, Director of Strategic Planning), is an expert in economic competitiveness and civic leadership. A cofounder of Collaborative Economics, she co-authored the annual Index of Silicon Valley, produced by Joint Venture: Silicon value tracking changes in the region’s economy, environment, and society.
Seana Norvell (Technology Public Relations), is a principle with Girls in Tech – Santa Cruz and describes herself as “obsessed” with social web and consumer technology. Her “Gen Y” perspective is full of energy and dedication to a new way of doing business.

Moderator: Donna Murphy (Vice Chancellor - University Relations, UCSC) leads the campus' internal and external strategic communications, relationship building, and fund-raising operations and oversees all of the units that support those efforts. Prior to joining UCSC, she was senior associate vice president for Advancement at the Tulane University Health Sciences Center and vice president for development at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative in New York.
This panel will have lots to say about how things are already changing and some personal perspectives on both being adaptive and taking control of one’s own environment.

NUTS & BOLTS Finally, our committee wanted to create an environment that really encouraged creativity. Through the generosity of Louis Rittenhouse and Mike Bethke we have arranged to use the fourth floor of the new Rittenhouse Building at 1375 Pacific Avenue. We’ll have access to the balconies overlooking downtown and will convert the undeveloped inside into a creative group-work environment. Cost for this event is $75 for Chamber members and $85 for non-members. Please join us for this innovative event dedicated to stimulating your imagination and planting the seeds that can mature into a new business future for you, your enterprise, and our community. Call 831.457.3720 if you need more information.